Fruits: Botanical and Culinary Definitions

• A "fruit" is derived from specific tissues of a flowering plant, typically one or more ovaries.
• The term "fruit" can have different meanings in botany and everyday language.

Seed Dispersal and Significance

• Fruits are how many plants disseminate seeds through symbiotic relationships with animals, aiding in nutrition.
• Fruits make up a substantial portion of global agriculture with extensive cultural and symbolic meanings like apples and pomegranates.

Culinary vs. Botanical Fruits

• Botanically true fruits are sometimes treated as vegetables in cooking due to their lack of sweetness, like squash, tomatoes and peppers.
• Culinary "fruits" aren't always true fruits botanically, like rhubarb, used in sweet desserts although only its petiole is edible.
• Fruits in the culinary sense are sweet plant products with seeds, vegetables are savory, and nuts are hard, oily, shelled products.

Quality Factors in Fruits

• The quality of processed fruit products depends on their initial quality and processes like harvesting methods, and post-harvest methods.
• Fresh fruit quality is determined by appearance, texture, flavor, and nutritive value with appearance defined by size, shape, color, and the absence of defects; texture includes firmness, crispness, and juiciness.
• Flavor in fruit includes sweetness, sourness, astringency, bitterness, aroma, and the absence of off-flavors.
• Nutritional quality is assessed by the content of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibers, carbohydrates, proteins, and phytochemicals.
• Safety factor is the presences of pesticides, heavy metals, mycotoxins, fungi and microbial contamination.
• Losses in fruit quality can be quantitative (water loss, injuries, decay) or qualitative (loss of acidity, flavor, color, nutritive value).
• Post-harvest losses are influenced by orchard conditions, transportation, handling systems and the time between harvesting and processing.
• Minimizing delays in post-harvest handling reduces quality loss, especially in strawberries, raspberries, apricots, and cherries.

Key Topics

• Classification of fruit
• Contribution of fruits to human nutrition
• Composition of fruit
• Factors influencing composition and quality of fruits and
• Key to successful handling of fresh fruits

Classification by Growing Region

• Fruits are classified by their growing regions: tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate.
• Growing regions and environmental conditions affect fruit quality

Tropical Fruits

• Major tropical fruits include mango, banana, pineapple, and papaya
• Minor tropical fruits include cashew apple, guava, lychee, mangosteen, sapota, passion fruit, tamarind, durian, rambutan, and jackfruit.

Subtropical Fruits

• Citrus fruits: grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange, pummelo, tangerine, and mandarin.
• Non-citrus fruits: avocado, cherimoya, fig, kiwifruit, olive, and pomegranate.

Temperate Fruits

• Pome fruits: apple, pear, and quince.
• Stone fruits: apricot, cherry, peach, and plum.
• Small fruits and berries: grapes, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, and cranberry.
• Other botanical fruits: tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, okra, squash, pumpkin, green bean, cucumber, and zucchini.

Nutritional Contributions

• Fruits are sources of energy, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibers, with recent recommendations emphasizing five to ten servings per day.
• Fruits contribute to the intake of minerals like zinc and selenium and contain antioxidants.

Energy (Calories)

• Carbohydrates: Banana, breadfruit, jackfruit, plantain, dates, and raisin.
• Proteins and amino acids: nuts, dried apricot, and figs.
• Fats: avocado, olive, and nuts

Vitamins in Fruits

• Fresh fruits supply 91% of vitamin C, 48% of vitamin A, 27% of vitamin B6, 17% of thiamin, and 15% of niacin.
• Vitamin A: orange, mango, papaya, pineapple, watermelon, apricot, peach, and cherry
• Vitamin C: strawberry, orange, grapefruit, kiwifruit, pineapple, amla
• Niacin: banana, apricot, and orange
• Riboflavin: banana, peach, avocado, apple, and orange
• Thiamin: orange, banana, grapefruit, and apple

Minerals in Fruits

• Fresh fruits provide 26% of magnesium and 19% of iron in the diet.
• Potassium: banana, peach, orange, and apple.
• Phosphorus: banana, orange, peach, fig, and raisin.
• Calcium: tangerine, grapefruit, and orange.
• Iron: strawberry, banana, apple, and orange.

Dietary Fiber

• All fruits contribute dietary fiber including cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and pectic substances from cell walls and skin.
• Fiber content ranges from 0.5 to 1.5% of fresh weight, aiding in relieving constipation and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer.

Antioxidants

• Fruits are linked to reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke due to antioxidants, or Phytochemicals.
• Flavonoids and phenolic compounds are found in fruits with red, blue, or purple colors like apricot, mango and raspberry.
• Carotenoids are found in orange fruits like apricot, mango, and peach.

Composition Overview

• Fruits are high in fiber, water, vitamin C, and sugars with varying levels.
• Fruits contain phytochemicals for long-term cellular health and disease prevention.
• Consuming fruits regularly is associated with lower risks of cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's, and cataracts.
• Potassium in fruits and vegetables may reduce kidney stones and bone loss and fruits are low in calories, aiding weight loss.

Carbohydrates

• Carbohydrate content in fruits range from 10-25%, is related to texture, taste, food value and structural framework.

Proteins & Lipids

• Fruit contains less than 1% protein.
• Lipids constitute a small percentage of most fruits, except avocado and olives.
• Lipids are important for appearance, protecting against water loss and pathogens, and cell membrane structure.

Organic Acids

• Living cells get energy from organic acids which are products of metabolism with the Krebs cycle in the process.
• Most fruits are acidic, pH 3 to 5 with fruits like lime and lemon containing 2-3% acid.

Pigments

• Pigments include chlorophylls, carotenoids, and anthocyanins which change color during ripening.
• Beta-carotene: a precursor to Vitamin A, remains stable in fruit tissue even after senescence.
• Anthocyanins: water-soluble glycosides, which are unstable and can be hydrolyzed by enzymes into oxidizing products.

Phenolic Compounds

• Phenolic content is higher in immature fruits including chlorogenic acid, catechin and are involved in enzymatic browning when tissue is exposed to air.

Volatiles

• Aroma of fruits is due to volatiles in low concentrations, with ethylene produced in climacteric fruit.
• Volatile compounds: esters, carbonyls, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and acids, with amyl acetate as the flavoring.

Vitamins

• Water-soluble vitamins in fruit,: C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, B12, biotin and pantothenic acid.
• Fat-soluble vitamins in fruit: A, D, E and K, less susceptible to post-harvest losses.
• Ascorbic acid is sensitive to handling and storage conditions, with losses increased by storage, high temperature, low humidity, damage, and injury.

Minerals

• Important minerals in fruit include Ca, Mg, Na, K, P, Cl, and S in macro quantities and Fe, Cu, Co, Mn, Zn, I, and MO in micro quantities.
• Potassium is the most abundant mineral, associated with acidity and color.
• Calcium is the second-most important, reduces CO2 and ethylene production, and delays ripening.
• Magnesium is a component of chlorophyll and Phosphorus is a component in cell metabolism.

Factors Affecting Fruit Quality

• Pre-harvest factors: genetics, climate, and cultural practices influence raw fruit composition, post-harvest life, and response to processing.
• Maturity at harvest: Determines fruit composition, quality, and storage life.
• Post-harvest factors: environmental conditions affect shelf life and quality.
• Temperature & humidity management includes relative humidity and ripening process.
• Atmospheric composition: oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene affecting respiration rate and storage life.

Handling Methods

• Post-harvest handling systems: Channels through which fruit reaches processing or consumers and must preserve fruit quality and prevent delays.

Maturity and quality

• Harvest fruits when mature to obtain optimal eating quality and remove fruits with defects post harvest.
• The goal is to minimize time between harvesting till cooling to preserve the fruit.
• Also important is to use proper fruits storage techniques based on preserving quality and flavor.

Temperature and Humidity Management

• Harvest and manage at cool temperatures and transfer fruits into refrigeration as soon as possible and not more than 2 hrs.
• Avoid delays in processing and keep fruits near their optimum temperature for successful processing.
• When ripening maintain proper relative humidity and temperature with or without ethylene treatment.

Physical safety

• Careful handling is important during transporting and processing to avoid damage.
• Avoid impacts and injuries to fruits and use protective sturdy containers during storage.

Cleanliness

• Sort and remove all decayed storage immediately
• Maintain and clean all containers, transportation and cleaning facility.

Expedited handling

• Reduce time between harvesting and cooling
• Avoid exceeding fruit shelf life to preserve flavor

Other

• India produces wide and abundant varieties of fruits some uncommon in other regions, such as amla and jamun.
• These unique fruits be preserved via fresh or by processing to ensure they are utilized to their full effect and that varieties under current conditions would be ideal for scientists.